Tales from the Fandom

I've been following Gina aka Ginamidala on Instagram for quite some time and I was excited that she said yes to being a guest. Not just because of her cosplay work, but also because she published her first book, Guide, and I wanted to talk about that too! We split the episode in half. For the first half, Gina and I talk about art and cosplay. With art, Gina talks about her beginnings with art in s...

It's always nice when people reach out and ask to be guests on the podcast. Shad, host of The Sidequest Hustle Podcast, did just that, and here we are! Shad kicks things off with a conversation about anime. Being that we're close in age, we cover a number of classic animes that started off on Toonami, and discuss watching anime at all hours of night. We talk about Gundam, as well as getting his pe...

Joy aka Joylenny KawaiiWorld on Instagram joins me to talk about two of her favorite things - Anime and Cosplay. We start things off by talking about anime. Joy talks about growing up in the Dominican Republic and watching her first anime series there. Once she moved to the US, she got more immersed in anime. We're talking everything from Dragonball to One Piece. Joy talks about the kinds of anime...

Shaunie aka ShaucatCosplay joins me to talk about a few of my favorite fandoms! We start off by talking about one of my favorite things growing up as a kid. For the first time in 500+ episodes, we talk Scooby Doo! Shaunie talks to me about how she first got into Scooby Doo. From the original series, to the animated movies, and the multitude of different shows they've made, we cover as much as poss...

Morgan aka CosbunnyCosplay joins me to talk all about Cosplay and the fandoms that she represents through her work. We start off by exploring how and why Morgan got interested in Cosplay. Morgan takes us through her beginnings with her first character she cosplayed as, to the skills she had at the time. As she gets more interested and involved with cosplay, Morgan shares the different skills and a...

Continuing the goal to have more authors on the podcast, author Holly Davis joins me to talk about her journey as an author and her first published book. We kick things off by going back in time. To a time where Disney and video games collided to form the Kingdom Hearts franchise. This is where Holly first started her journey, writing fan fiction based in the Kingdom Hearts setting. Holly talks ab...

A person I've known for quite some time, I had the pleasure of having Slope join me from The Netherlands to talk about two of his current favorite things in fandom. Time Travel in Fandom, and Minecraft. We kick things off by talking about Time Travel in Fandom. Where did Slope first find this? In The Legend of Zelda! We talk about a variety of fandoms within the time travel scope. From Back to the...

November 2023, I posted on Threads wanting to have more authors come on the podcast. One of those who threw their hat into the ring was Myka Silber. A little over a year later, and I had the pleasure of getting to have them on! Myka talks first about how they started down the author path, from their first writings back in high school, to pandemic lock down writing and self publishing, to their lat...

The first international guest of 2025 is here! Nat aka ScruffySpaceElf on socials joins me from Austria to talk about her favorite fandoms! We kick things off with what may be her number 1 fandom, Star Trek. Nat talks about which series started things off for her, some of the shows she's watched (and others she hasn't), favorite characters, and so much more as we explore the Trek space. Then we go...

After seeing her work alongside a previous guest, I'm glad to welcome MG aka MangaGirl1114_Cosplay on to the podcast to talk about her favorite fandoms. We start off with Disney. Disney is such a wide and varied fandom with so many entry points, it's always fun to hear how people get into it. MG talks about her entry point to Disney, some of her favorite movies and shows, and what keeps her coming...

I love stumbling across cosplayers who take a character and make it their own. One of those cosplayers is Amanda. You may know her as TheHauntedManda on socials. After finding her work and following her, I was glad she said yes to being on the podcast! We start things off with a new to the podcast fandom, Arcane. Amanda talks about how she got into the show and if she played League of Legends prio...

We're back! 2025 is here! Our first guest of the year is Emily Engel. You may know her on the socials as Axepersonified. Emily is a fiber artist who makes wicked cool Muppet replicas. Emily and I start things off by talking about, what else, Muppets and the replicas she creates. She talks about her history with the Muppet franchise (shows and movies), and how she got her start in making these repl...

After stumbling across her cosplay of Taylor Swift's Evermore cosplay outfit from The Eras Tour, I knew I'd like Eri. I checked out her work and knew I had to have her on the podcast. Eri aka CosplayAncestorEri joins me to talk all about fandom and the history from the 90s (which is when I also started getting into fandom!) We kick things off first with a mini conversation about Taylor Swift, befo...

Amy aka Queen Amy Dala Cosplay joins me from Vancouver, Canada, to talk about two of her favorite things - Final Fantasy and Cosplay! I stumbled across Amy's cosplay on Instagram in March and I really enjoyed what she had, particularly, her love of representing Final Fantasy characters, including characters from Final Fantasy 4 and 6. So luckily for us, she said yes to being a guest. We kicked off...

It's time! Time for the Bridgerton episode. I finally decided to sit down and watch the entire series. After binge watching all 3 seasons, plus the Queen Charlotte series, I knew I needed to talk to someone about it while we wait for Season 4. Who better to come back than Brittany aka BajanPrincessBrittany. This is a spoiler episode, so if you haven't watched any of the seasons yet, this episode i...

HylianDescent returns again for his 5th episode! HylianDescent aka Joshua, founder of the Hyrule Gaming Group comes back for another entry into his time capsule of his Twitch streaming experience as we look back on the previous year. We check in on how he's doing and how his past year was. Then I talk to Joshua about a number of games he has played over the year, including games like: Fields of Mi...

Rounding out the month of September, I am joined by LilipopeCosplay as we get a wonderful episode filled with fandom! Li has a number of fandoms we get to talk about, and we kick things off with one of her favorites, Star Wars. We talk all about how she first got into the fandom. We're talking about the movies, TV shows, books, and so much more. We're both fond of the Legends run of books (formerl...

National Dance Day is a yearly day to celebrate dance. It happens on the third Saturday of September. Today's guest is here to help celebrate that day. Judy Gallagher joins me to talk about dance and more! We start things off with one of my favorite shows, Avatar: The Last Airbender. Judy talks about how she first discovered the show, and of course, we have to talk about Zuko and his arc through t...

This guest has been a long time coming. Dreams in the Noct (Dreams) joins me to talk about some of her favorite fandoms! We start things off by talking about K-Pop! Dreams has been into K-Pop for a very long time, as we reminisce about finding international music in music stores way back in the day. She talks about first getting into J-Pop, and then finding her way into the K-Pop scene. We talk ab...

A lot of new fandom oriented podcasts have started up this past year, and I for one am here for it. That Nerd Thing, hosted by Morgan, started in January of 2024. After 9 months of hosting, Morgan joins me to be on the other side of the mic, answering questions instead of asking them (and not having to edit the podcast too!) We start things off by heading to corporate America, as we talk about The...

Another year, another Drewbearded podcast episode. What can I say? I like to have some friendly voices return every year, and Drew is one of those. Normally, with a Drewbearded episode, you'd get us talking about Twitch and the latest videogames that Drew had been playing. NOT THIS TIME! Drew talks about his return to the stage, and specifically community theater. Drew talks about his history in t...

Sometimes in life, you find people that you just connect with. Sometimes, when you connect with those people, all plans are thrown out the window and you get to have a wonderfully authentic conversation based on how those people grew up. Such is this episode with Keli aka Kelz1977 on Twitch. As I told Keli when we started recording, a lot of the time, the people that come on the podcast are younge...

After someone shared her work to their stories, I fell in love with the energy, style, and mashups that Lili aka Floris_Lilium had on her Instagram. I knew she would be someone I'd enjoy getting to have on the podcast and share her stories. One "Yes" later, and here we are! We focus solely on two topics for today. The first conversation is one then goes back to her childhood. Dancing. Lilil talks...

It's always a wonderful time when guests say Yes to being a part of the podcast. I've been looking forward to having Amy aka MogwaiLatte join me. Now from her mouth to your ears! We start things off by talking about Princess Parties. Amy talks about how not everyone can just put on a princess dress and entertain the kiddos. We talk about how they got into doing princess parties, some of the charac...

I'm always on the lookout for people to ask to come on the podcast and bringing new topics to the podcast. I'm excited that Corazon aka VintageFilAmGlam on Instagram said yes, and now you get to listen and learn from her! We kick things off with one of the long running fandoms, Dr. Who. Which I still have yet to watch. Corazon talks about how she got into the fandom, some of her favorite Doctors,...